Cassie

"'Elbow out, shoulders back, wrists loose. Find your mark, and just breathe.'"

The Hunter
(To talk about Cassie, one must first learn of her father, Orien. In his youth, Orien was known as a great hunter and one who was renown throughout the Realm as simply the Hunter.  None could match Orien's prowess with a crossbow.  It was said that he could track the most elusive prey and even escape the deadliest of predators, without a scratch.  Once his prey was in his sights, escape was impossible.)

The Hunter's Daughter
Eventually, Orien looked to settle down and chose to settle within one of his most favorite hunting grounds, the Greenwood. There, he built a great Hunting Lodge and turned it into a profitable business as a tour guide for noble merchants and royals wishing to escape the city and hunt. Being an expert keeper of the land, Orien knew where to take his hunting parties to give them the thrills that they so craved, but also he kept a close watch on the animal populations and maintained a beautiful balance in the woods. On one such expedition, he was commissioned to lead a nobleman and his daughter, Ilya on a fantastic hunt. During the trip, Orien fell for the daughter of the nobleman and the two absconded on several occasions. Even after the expedition, Ilya was often known to return to the Greenwood for her holidays.

Those were days never to be forgotten. The two shared many special moments together, but one day, when Orien came to meet her again for another of her holiday's with him in the Greenwood, he was met instead by one of her loyal house servants. As she presented the Hunter with a baby, Orien did the math and realized it had been a little over 9 months since their last encounter. The servant instructed him that the child was given the name of Cassandra by her mother, but he as he was requested to raise the child, he could name her what he wanted to. To honor his love, who was now no longer permitted to see him ever again, Orien chose to shorten it simply to Cassie.

Early Years
Cassie was raised in the traditions of her father and was a great hunter in her own right even at a very young age. Like her father, she held a deep respect for Nature and only took what was needed to survive and lived off the land, keeping the population of the animals in check along with her father to protect them and keep them from getting overpopulated. She eventually even made a friend in the form of a red hawk she named Zigs.

The Curse of the Greenwood
As the Realm grew and prospered under the Golden Years of the Magistrate as they were called, many people began migrating to the edges of the Greenwood and a small human settlement was formed on the border. With humanity, however, destruction often follows and Cassie would learn that their woodland paradise would be no exception. Amongst the settlers who came to the woodland region, was a dark being who was said to converse with the demons of the Abyss. Others swore that he had been witnessed drinking the blood of others at night. Attempts were made to find this creature, but he would always retreat into the darkness and shadows and was never heard from during the day.

In the village it no longer became safe to travel at night and a curfew was enacted in order to protect the citizens. Meanwhile, the Greenwood, which was supposed to become a safe haven, began to attract strange inhabitants. Night dwellers as such had not been seen before and vicious dire wolves were said to stalk the woods at night. Soon, the local animal populations began to be threatened as corpses of beasts were found shredded in the woods. Cassie's father Orien knew that something had to be done and he donned his crossbow once more intent this time on hunting a dangerous creature of the night to end the darkness that was falling around them. He soon learned that the man, if it could even be called one, had allies in darkness that served him alone. Dark witches and night hags took to the forest. A pack of werewolves was said to be seen roaming the wood.

One by one, Orien hunted them all down until he cornered the vampiric beast one day before dawn in the shade of the swamp. The two faced off and in the end Orien, came out the victor, but not without consequence. One of the minions of the vampire, a werewolf had managed to bite Orien and wound him gravely.

He arrived that day at the lodge injured. Cassie took him in and nursed his wound, but felt that he had lost too much blood and would most likely die that evening from his injuries. However, as the night fell and the moon arose, Orien found himself renewed in strength, his wound melting away into a scar that would last him the rest of his life. He took to the hunt that very night to try and root out the last remnants of the vampire's evil. At midnight, though, with the full moon arisen to its highest, he suddenly reverted to the very thing that he had hunted. Thick black fur enveloped him as his fangs grew and he was consumed with a ravenous hunger and ferocity. With a deafening howl, he took to the woods, hunting a different sport.

Cassie was awoken in her room with the sound of a howl outside her window. As she got up however, a cackle was heard behind her. One of the remaining night hags had crept into her home. "A curse shall be upon you both Hunter and Hunter's daughter," she said uttering the dark words of a curse. It was a curse that would force her and her father both to remain forever trapped within the Greenwood, never to escape again unless Father killed Daughter or Daughter killed her father. The hag suddenly vanished and Cassie was left spent and exhausted on the floor.

When her father returned the next day, they both realized what happened. Orien was cursed with the werewolf curse and his daughter and he both were cursed to remain in the Greenwood. With neither wanting to harm the other, the two remained for a time, adopting a nightly routine in which she would lock up her father and stop him from wreaking havoc in the Greenwood and upon the now peaceful village nearby. During the daytimes, Orien's training grew more intense as he sought to impart everything he knew and everything he was to his daughter in the hopes that should he try to attack her in his bestial state, she would have the wherewithal to stop him and kill him if she had to.

(Will fill in the rest later, but it involves the Magistrate and the town of Seris. Cassie learns that it was the Magistrate who caused the destruction of the town of Seris and the bringing forth of the being now known as Seris and fearing that the Greenwood and the Realm in general will once again be plunged into darkness and fell creatures like her father, she decides to set out and join the Resistance.  So, she loosens the shackles on her father one night before his transformation and without him knowing.  He breaks free and she sets off after him with Zigs following behind, tracking him from above.  She confronts her father, the werewolf, and for the briefest of moments, it feels that the man behind the beast, Orien's eyes are seen through the monster's.  In that moment of moments time seems to stand still as Orien reaches out to Cassie and tells her it will be okay.  From there, Cassie, through tear-streaked eyes fires her father's crossbow with a bolt made of silver right through the beast's heart.

The curse is lifted and Cassie sets off towards the Resistance camps hoping beyond hope that her decision was the right one and that it would not haunt her.)